Former President Donald Trump has vowed that he will nix Temporary Protected Status for thousands of Haitian immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio and deport them.
Springfield, which has been inundated with a flood of migrants from the Caribbean nation over recent years, was jolted into the national spotlight last month after Trump, 78, amplified unsubstantiated pet consumption claims during his Sept. 10 debate against Kamala Harris.
“Absolutely, I’d revoke it and I’d bring them back to their country,” Trump told “NewsNation” correspondent Ali Bradley in a Wednesday interview.
TPS is currently given to migrants from 16 strife-ridden countries, including Haiti, to which deportation could risk their safety.
As of March 31, more than 200,000 individuals from Haiti had been approved for TPS, according to the Congressional Research Service. During his time in office, Trump scrapped TPS protections for both Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants.
Springfield, which established a “Welcome Springfield” initiative roughly a decade ago to court migrants, was estimated to have had a population of about 58,000 in 2022 — but has received roughly 15,000 to 20,000 new residents since, putting a severe strain on its public resources for schools and health care.
Trump had seized on Springfield’s plight while railing against Vice President Kamala Harris’ track record on illegal migration and the ongoing migrant crisis.
Before the debate against Harris, Trump had posted memes to his social media account alluding to reports that migrants in Springfield were eating pets.
Then, the Republican nominee said it out loud.
“They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump said at the debate, prompting a swift fact-check from moderator David Muir, who noted that city officials denied those allegations.
Springfield received dozens of bomb threats against government buildings, schools and more — the “vast majority” of which stemmed from foreign actors intending to agitate US domestic politics, according to Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.
Trump and his running mate JD Vance, 40, dug in and lashed out at the media in response.
“What’s happening there is horrible. You have a beautiful community,” Trump lamented to “NewsNation.” “You have to remove the people [migrants]. … We cannot destroy our country.”
“It doesn’t work. It can’t work. It has nothing to do with Haiti or anything else,” he added, contending that Haiti will “receive” the migrants.
The Harris-Walz campaign has skewered Trump and Vance over the claims, with the vice president decrying the mayhem that ensued in Springfield after the debate.
“People are deeply troubled by what is happening to that community in Springfield, Ohio, and it’s got to stop,” Harris told a National Association of Black Journalists panel last month.
Amid the controversy, a staffer from Vance’s team contacted Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck about the wild pet consumption claims, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.
“He asked point-blank, ‘Are the rumors true of pets being taken and eaten?’” Heck recounted to the outlet. “I told him no. There was no verifiable evidence or reports to show this was true. I told them these claims were baseless.”
Vance, who lives approximately 90 minutes from Springfield has insisted that he wants to elevate concerns that local residents have about the influx of migrants into their community.
“We don’t blame the Haitian migrants for coming to Springfield,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press” last month. “We blame Kamala Harris for opening the American southern border and inviting 20,000 people to get dropped in a small Ohio town.”
